It had been two months since the war had ended. Naruto and Sasuke had both lost an arm during their ridiculous fight, but they had new ones being made for them.

Kakashi had been selected to be the Sixth Hokage and he and Shanan were planning on being married soon. They kept trying to keep it small, but with him being Hokage now, everyone else was making it bigger and bigger.

Everyone in the village offered to do everything for them for free. But Shanan and Kakashi insisted on paying.

Then there was the matter of who would walk with Shanan. Asuma and Guy had walked with her in the Kaitei, and Neji and Lee would've happily done it, but she really hoped that Naruto and Sasuke would walk with her this time. She had asked them together, but Naruto had joked that maybe they could fight for just one of them to do it and somehow the subject had been changed after that, so she would have to ask them again.

Naruto had cleverly changed the subject on purpose. He knew that Sasuke had been caught off guard when she'd asked.

"We should figure this out," he said to Sasuke once she left.

"Figure out what? Me handing her over to Kakashi, really?" he asked a bit incredulously.

He and Naruto were almost always together now. They had missed out on three years on their individual quests for power and even though they bickered a lot, and tore each other's arms off, they were still closer than they'd ever been.

"Come on, Sasuke. If you don't, she's gonna suspect you have feelings for her. You're the one who said you'd never let her know."

Sasuke sighed loudly and rested his forehead on the table. "How am I supposed to do that, Naruto?" he asked without lifting his head up.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know. I've never been in love, so I can't really give you advice. Want me to go and get Shikamaru?"

"No..." He looked up at Naruto. "Are you sure he's even going?"

Naruto had his hand resting on top of his head as he rocked back in his chair and shrugged. "Uhn-uhn... he said he promised Shanan to be happy for her when she got married. But who knows if he's gonna follow through."

"He advised me to move on, but I can't. I can't even try." He had his chin resting on his arm now as he thought. "But I can't let her down. She already thinks we had some kind of disagreement or something."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at him. "A disagreement?"

"Yeah. My Sharingan keeps her from reading me, but she doesn't seem to have that ability or she just doesn't care to try."

They both looked at each other for a moment. "She doesn't care," they said in unison as they laughed.

"I can't let her think I hate her for even a second, but I can't let her know that I love her. Not in that way. So..." he took a minute to breathe, "I'll walk with her."

"Good. And I'll be right there for you, ok?"

"Anyway, I needed to talk to you about something. I've been thinking about it a lot."

"Oh no..." Naruto said bracing himself for bad news.

"You don't even know what I'm gonna say, idiot."

"Something ridiculous."

"Shut up and listen." He paused for a moment. Naruto was going to think it was ridiculous, but he had already made up his mind. "Right. I'm leaving. After the wedding. I just did so many bad things, I even really considered joining the Akatsuki before I came home and then wanting to seal away all of the beasts inside of me after the war... Anyway, I know I let everyone down and I just wanna prove myself to be a good person."

Naruto still had his hand on top of his head while he rocked back in his chair. He waited to make sure Sasuke had finished as he glanced over at him. "Like I said before, that's ridiculous. Besides, who knows if our arms will be ready by then."

Sasuke put his forehead back on the table. "I don't deserve for my arm to be replaced."

"Now who's the idiot?" Naruto said as he laughed a bit.

"Not like I need any arms to do ninjutsu," he said, head still on the table.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I wouldn't set your heart on leaving. Shanan won't let you. I guarantee it."

Sasuke didn't say anything. He certainly wouldn't leave without telling her again, but he really did feel like he needed to do something positive for the village.

The next day Naruto and Sasuke went over to Shanan and Kakashi's for dinner, like they often did. The three of them sat on the couch as Kakashi cooked. Sasuke wanted to make sure that Shanan would know that they were both happy to walk with her, but she was the first to bring it up anyway.

"I noticed you guys never told me if you would walk with me or not, I never got an actual answer. So I'm just gonna ask again. Will you guys please walk with me?" she begged with her hands clasped together.

Even if Sasuke had decided against it, he probably would've changed his mind, he thought.

"Oh, did we not give you an actual answer?" Naruto said a bit nervously.

"Obviously, the answer is yes," Sasuke told her.

Shanan threw her arms around the one closest to her, which happened to be Sasuke, and squeezed him tight. And then she stood up and went to where Naruto was sitting and squeezed him too.

"Well, I'd squeeze you back, but ya know..." he said as he smiled. Then he remembered what Sasuke had said to him. "Speaking of arms..." he said casually.

"We weren't." Sasuke said as he shot him a look.

"Shanan, Sasuke said he wants to leave to redeem himself and he isn't even gonna wait for his arm to be made cause he said he doesn't deserve it." He said it all quickly so that Sasuke couldn't stop him.

Shanan was suddenly distressed as she looked over at Sasuke.

"Damn you, Naruto," Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

Shanan sat back down next to Sasuke as she thought for a moment and chuckled. "Sasuke," she started softly.

He always loved how she said his name. She was always so delicate with it. He swallowed hard, waiting for her to speak.

She looked up at him as she grabbed his hand. "You think you need to redeem yourself? Really? You helped save not only this village, but the world. You. While everyone else was sleeping. And afterwards, you and I, we delivered so many messages of goodbye to people. You brought so many people peace seeing their loved ones off and seeing them one last time." She was already tearing up as she squeezed his hand. "And you think a kind hero like yourself doesn't deserve to have his arm replaced?" Tears started falling down her face now. "Sasuke... I don't know why you hate yourself so much, but I really love you. And you deserve so much more than just your arm."

Shanan had taken a moment to decide on what type of hug to give him and landed on the hug she'd given him when they first saw each other. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest.

It had been the right hug.

Whatever arguments he may have come up with simply faded away as he remembered seeing her for the first time in a long time. How she fell into him and he wrapped her as tightly as he could. He said he'd never leave her again then. He wasn't even sure how he'd come up with such a dumb idea anymore. And if Shanan thought him a hero, then he'd do all that he could to always be one to her.